By Nick Carey and Ben Klayman
(Reuters) -General Motors Co on Wednesday posted a better-than-expected first-quarter profit despite a global semiconductor chip shortage that shuttered some plants, and said it expected full-year pretax profit to come in at the high end of its forecast.
“The speed and agility of our team are front and center as we move from managing through a pandemic to managing the global semiconductor shortage,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders. “This remains a challenging period for the company as we emerge from 2020.”
Barra added that the No. 1 U.S. automaker’s “supply chain and manufacturing teams are maximizing production of high-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles.”
GM reiterated its full-year 2021 earnings guidance and said “based on what we know today,” its results will be at the upper end of the $10 billion to $11 billion adjusted pretax profit it has previously forecast.
The No. 1 U.S. automaker posted a first-quarter net profit of $3 billion, or $2.03 per share, up from $294 million or 17 cents per share a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $2.25 per share, well above analyst expectations of $1.04 per share.
(Reporting by Nick Carey, editing by Louise Heavens and Bernadette Baum)
